With over a million applications in the market across all platforms, app publishers are finding it increasingly challenging to cut through the noise and get their apps discovered and noticed.
When it comes down to it, the name of the game is downloads and to put it simply, more downloads = more money.
As downloads are a requirement to earn revenue for any application regardless of revenue model, they are a critical factor in the overall success of a mobile app.
Getting downloads starts with having a great looking app icon, a great app description and great screenshot images. Your app store sales page is the foundation for all of your other marketing as you will be ultimately driving people to this page to download your app.
Once you have optimised these areas you can use these assets in all aspects of marketing your app outside of the app store.
As the app stores become more and more saturated, it is evident that developers can no longer solely rely on these distribution centers to succeed and the best way to learn how to succeed is to look at those who are doing well around you and follow suit.
We took a look at what the TOP earners from the industry were doing to market their application outside of the app stores and created the following app marketing checklist.
- Online Landing Page
- Mobile Landing Page
- Social Networks: Twitter & Facebook
- Paid Media: Mobile, Search, Social
- Paid Reviews
- PR & Blogger Outreach
- Price Promotions
Targeting & Converting Loyal App Users
While it is important to acquire new users for your app, we’ve learned that users abandon an app often after a single use, and those high download numbers are really just part of a high churn rate.
Many app developers have concluded that volume and rank, at worst, are superficial metrics and, at best, short-term strategies that are not sustainable. Downloads often don’t convert into launches and launches are often one-time events that never translate into purchases, registrations or repeat visits.
To monetise an app, we’ve concluded that user engagement is more important than driving large volumes of downloads.
For mobile apps that generate revenue through advertising, a loyal user may be someone who opens the app at least five times.
Now that the mobile app market is maturing, there is a plethora of historical data available that lets marketers identify the best traffic sources for their users and you should be able to use this information to run laser-targeted marketing campaigns.
There are a variety of resources available to you to get the word out about your app and this needs to be done in a professional way that leads your potential customers through your funnel so that they either download your free app, purchase your app or interact with one of your chosen monetisation methods inside the app.